Traditional Chinese funerals, in which the dead are buried in hillside cemeteries, have extensive environmental impacts including erosion and removal of indigenous trees. In recent years, the Chinese government has encouraged alternative practices, such as tree burials and sea burials. Cynthia Parsons, a student at Brigham Young University in the USA, studied current conflict over land use and assessed alternatives proposed by the government in the context of the spatial distribution of population increase over the last half century.